It didn’t take Prevna long to get the short version of why it taken me so long to meet up with them. She put on a brave face for me, but I could tell she didn’t like the implication of the ghost’s shadow drawing my paths to it, nor was she pleased to find that I had braved the healer’s camp on my own when it could have been full of enemies. Like I predicted, however, she was mollified that I had done it to get ingredients for poison making and that there hadn’t actually been anyone there.

She also pointed out that there there were plenty of gardens and other plants hanging at various points all over the Seedling Palace that I could have gotten my ingredients from. I defended myself by saying those couldn’t necessarily hold up to a poisoner’s dedicated collection, especially when it came to his concoctions. Prevna gave me her knowing smile and we left it at that in favor of focusing on Esie and Mishtaw.

Ever since we stepped out of the shadow there had been an odd tension between my two benefactors. While Prevna and I spoke they were exchanging their own greetings and information about the state of the inner valleys and the purge outside them. Now they seemed to stepping closer to the matter that had them at odds as the tension rose higher.

“Is your Lady accepting visitors?” Mishtaw asked. “If she’s going to be giving my apprentice assignments in the future, perhaps it’d be best if we coordinated in person.”

“A mentorship at our behest,” Esie said, her voice light and smile still in place. Everything about how she said it made it seem like it should have been an idle comment or a wry joke. I think she could have made it wholly into that, but she chose not to hide the warning in her eyes.

Mishtaw stood her ground. “What I take on, I take on wholly.”

“Perhaps. In your own way, but I will be mentoring Gimley too. She’s expressed interest in expanding her knowledge on poisons.”

“And you think that’s wise? With her history?” Mishtaw’s expression turned bitter. “But what’s another risk when you already—” She cut herself off as she glanced over at Prevna and me. Then she spoke to Creed who had been waiting patiently behind her the entire time, “Take them home. It seems Esie and I have some…understandings we need to reach.”

It was clear they were speaking about me. Curiosity was like a craving on my tongue, to figure out exactly what Mishtaw didn’t like about the mission Esie had given me at the Lady of Calm Waters’ behest. But I followed Creed with Prevna back to Mishtaw’s home. The whisper women weren’t going to speak openly with us listening in and I didn’t want to press my luck with either of them.

Not yet. Not when Esie was opening up to me a little bit more and had promised to help me work with plants again. Not with everything Mishtaw had just gone through in the inner valleys.

So Prevna and I settled on our bench on the balcony while Creed bustled around checking on things until some of his family showed up with Pip, his son. Pip proved to be a powerful distraction until it got to be his bedtime. I thought Creed would join his family when they left, but instead he bid them goodnight and settled against the smooth brown wall of Mishtaw’s home to face us.

“You don’t need to wait on us,” Prevna said.

Creed shook his head slowly. “You’re right about that, you two take care of yourselves real well, but best to have this conversation tonight. There’s no good place, not when everything is Her territory, but at least we know She’s distracted.”

“What conversation?” I asked, tone sharp.

He rested his head back against the dome and waved a hand. “A necessary one, but Mishtaw should be the one to lead it, not me.”

I crossed my arms. “What’s taking her so long?”

Prevna poked me. “Think she’s searching a healer’s den for goodies?” I glared at her and she laughed. “Apparently, you’re a riveting topic.”

I huffed out a breath and turned my glare on scenery. I doubted that her and Esie could have been talking about me this entire time no matter what mentorships or assignments they might be debating. They had other responsibilities. Perhaps one of those had taken priority over returning here.

Everything was dark by the time Mishtaw returned. Only the pine cone lanterns lit up warm pools of light against the soft backdrop of pine needles brushing against each other and the patches of starry sky peeking through them. It made the whole frantic day from the moment Mishtaw arrived on the edge of the inner valleys to the goddess taking over the audience chamber to kicking the villagers out of their home feel like a particularly vivid dream. Even my new issue with walking the shadow paths and meeting Esie felt distant. Like somehow, we had never gone to the mountains, that that whole misadventure couldn’t have happened when everything was so calm here.

It was like no one knew the goddess had showed up where no one expected Her to ever go and then irrevocably changed things in the inner valleys with a single command. But perhaps they didn’t. It wasn’t like the goddess went around announcing her movements.

Or perhaps those that knew also knew better than to spread the information. All that was likely to cause was panic or trouble. After all, none of us could influence the goddess’s actions but there were those who’d likely feel entitled to teaching the village boys a lesson if they learned about their origins or that might seek out the audience chamber without taking the proper precautions if they learned about the significance it now held for the goddess.

Prevna was dozing against me but she sat up with a start when Mishtaw stepped onto the platform. Mishtaw looked tired, more worn out than I was used to seeing her. She gestured for us to join her before she stepped inside the dome. Prevna scrubbed at her face to wake herself up and then we crowded in after Mishtaw with Creed taking up the rear. He set about securing the door flap so it was completely closed while Mishtaw handed us cushions to sit on.

We settled in the open area of her home. Really, we didn’t strictly need the cushions since that space was dominated by a large, soft grass and needle rug woven with intricate patterns but she always insisted on providing them. Prevna had asked her about the rug before but all we learned was that it was a gift from Eliss. Overhead was one of the smallest pine cone lanterns I had ever seen, only half the size of my head, but it still did a good of lighting up the space.

Once the door was as secure as it was going to get Creed join us with his own cushion and Mishtaw finally spoke.

“Your patience is appreciated. I had an unexpected meeting with the Lady of Calm Waters, but this isn’t a conversation we should put off, especially not when you already ran afoul of some of the dangers of the shadow paths I took too long in mentioning.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

My eyes flared wide open. “You met with my patron?”

She nodded. “She often keeps her own council, but this time she was…gracious enough to hear my concerns.”

“You know who she is?”

Mishtaw’s head tilted slightly. “You don’t know?” And then she sighed, muttering, “Esie and her games.”

I realized I was an idiot for not asking Mishtaw about my patron sooner even if it always felt like I was supposed to figure out the secret of her identity myself. That I shouldn’t pry too deep in case Esie and her changed their minds about me if I couldn’t figure it out.

Mishtaw caught my gaze, “Who was the one who calmed the waters of the coast for over half a century until now? The one who killed more of the Lady Blue’s minions than the rest of us combined until she hid with her creatures in the depths?”

She nodded as she saw realization flood my face. “The Thousand Cut Witch.”

Kaylan had told me about her when we were stuck up in the scout’s nest together. The legendary whisper woman who stopped the endless fight with the fish for longest period in known memory. The one who had carved up her own skin to kill scores of the Lady Blue’s creatures until they hid and she had no more skin to cut.

It was no one wonder Esie was given such leniency as her intermediary or that no one was willing to cross her. She might be older than Grandmother and unable to use her blessing, but there was no doubt that she was a living legend that had done more than her part for the goddess.

I gathered my thoughts at the revelation while Creed filled Prevna in on who the Thousand Cut Witch was and what she was known for.

She asked, “Why did her title change?”

Creed shrugged. “Someone decided at some point to venerate her for her greatest accomplishment rather possibly risk causing her discomfort by referring to her by a title for a blessing she could no longer use.”

Mishtaw drew in a long breath. “But that is beside the point. She has her own plans for you, Gimley. Plans that will be—already have been—dangerous. She shouldn’t have set you on the path to find that cave.”

I knew that her and Esie’s involvement weren’t always going to be to my benefit. The transactional nature of her favors and only helping me when I was at my lowest and in no position to decline spoke to that, no matter how good Esie was at disarming the people around her. But this first favor? Delivering a stone? That had taken a different turn than I expected and I couldn’t help but want to find out why exactly interacting with the spirit was so dangerous—other than her animosity towards the goddess.

Creed leaned forward. “You said you delivered the stone? You met the cave’s…owner?”

Prevna and I shared a look and in that moment we decided it was best to no longer hold what we experienced so close to our chest. We told them everything we knew about the mountain spirit, the entity that had visited me in my dreams and pulled us into waking ones in the Night Cave. The only thing I think that we both glossed over was our answers to the entity’s probing questions to determine what we wished for. That seemed a step removed from whatever plans the Lady of Calm Waters had and it was too personal to just blurt out, besides.

Both Mishtaw and Creed looked ashen by the time we finished detailing all of our encounters with the entity. Creed had his head in his hands while a tendon in Mishtaw’s forearm stood out from how hard she was gripping the hilt of her eating knife.

“That’s…” Mishtaw visibly collected herself. “It’s dangerous to meet a wish maker, much less keep its attention. Do you know the story of Grislander?”

Her question was directed at Prevna. Given that I had sheltered in Grislander’s Maw every cold season before coming to the Seedling Palace I would have had to have been a particularly sheltered fool not to know it. I knew that Prevna did as well. She had known it in passing already, but I had also told her the tale when she asked me to tell her one of the legends I knew. Something we occasionally did on a quiet night to pass the time.

At Prevna’s confirmation, Mishtaw continued, “Those tribes that rose the great beast? They were preyed upon by a wish maker and now we all suffer for it. Wish makers might promise great power, the possibility to achieve anything you set your mind to but it is nothing but a trap that catches you to await the goddess’s judgment.”

“There are others?” I asked.

Mishtaw nodded. “I’ve heard of a handful during my time caring for the relics. Scattered all across the goddess’s territory, though some are just my conjecture based on the legends in the area. They are not something you should seek out. The goddess doesn’t take kindly to others pretending to have Her power nor do the wish makers truly wish to help. I’m not sure how it works, but from what I learned they seem to think that pulling people from the goddess’s influence and granting them wishes will increase their own power. Help them grow their territories like that cave, possibly weakening the goddess, though I doubt that’s possible.”

We just stared at her. More questions crowded my tongue but I couldn’t quite decide what to ask. How did she know about the wish makers and their capabilities? Were the others like the dream entity? Why were wishes not constantly popping up if there were these entities offering to fulfill people’s desires? How was she able to identify the cave as a wish maker’s domain? Had she met the dream entity?

Creed picked up the warning lecture, “We don’t know the meaning of the stone, but nothing good comes from getting mixed up with one of those creatures. If you make a wish you’d be lucky to live as long as the tribes that got crushed under their own creation rather than facing the goddess’s wrath for encroaching on her domain. That kind of power isn’t for us.”

My teeth ground together. “Why would Esie send me to find the mountain spirit—wish maker then?”

“Like I said, the Lady of Calm Waters has her own plans, not that she shared them with me. Most whisper women don’t even know about them. Safer that way, so she shouldn’t have sent you directly into the monster’s den,” said Mishtaw.

My instinct was to hunt down Esie and demand answers—and I knew I likely wouldn’t be able to restrain myself when I saw her next, but I also knew getting those answers would be like prying teeth. She had already asked about my meeting with the entity but hadn’t given any information away about the reason for the mission or hinted at all these dire warnings Mishtaw and Creed had.

I hesitated before asking, “Do you think she’ll send me to meet another one?”

Mishtaw’s face pinched. “I don’t know, but even the Lady of Calm Waters knows better than to try the goddess’s temper.”

Prevna shifted so her shoulder touched mine. “If she tries to give you any more stones just chuck them from the Palace.”

“And if that makes the Lady angry?”

“We’ll deal with it.”

It’d be a terrible idea to make the Lady of Calm Waters angry when her patronage had been in key in allowing me to retain my position as a seedling and then gain Mishtaw as a mentor, not to mention the favors I still owed her or Esie’s promise of training, but between my experiences with the entity and now Mishtaw and Creed’s dire warning, it really didn’t seem like a good idea to tangle with a wish maker.

My mind felt heavy with all the events of the day. I needed time to parse through everything we’d been through and what I’d learned. Mishtaw saw my struggle.

“We can’t speak freely of wish makers. As with gaining life, it’s best to do so as little as possible. Keep in mind what we told you and if the Lady does try to send you on another mission involving them, at least now you have the information to make an informed decision.”

Creed thumped me on the back. “If you have trouble, come to us.”

Mishtaw agreed. “I might not be the Thousand Cut Witch and you might have a nose for finding every trouble imaginable, but we’ll do what we can to help.”

I couldn’t look at them. Those offers were so far removed from anything I was used to expecting that I wasn’t sure how to handle them. If I even wanted to accept them. If it came down to it I could figure things out on my own. I always did. And they’d be less at risk then—

Prevna leaned harder against me. “I’ll make sure she does. Some things are better faced together than alone.”

I fought off the flush that threatened to crawl up my neck and onto my cheeks. Sometimes, I wished she wasn’t quite so good at knowing what I was thinking. But they were all looking at me expectantly now so I allowed, “If it comes to that.”

“Good. Now let’s get some rest. No matter how long this day was, there’s always more to do tomorrow.” Mishtaw rose and took her own advice as she disappeared into her sleeping area.

Creed left to return to his own living quarters while Prevna and I settled into our alcove. My mind buzzed with all the unanswered questions I had, the duality between Esie’s behavior and what information she decided to share or withhold, the terrifying experience it had been to be confronted with the goddess’s presence and a the honest debate about whether it was better to risk Her attention or be burned by lava. My mind buzzed and yet it didn’t seem long before sheer exhaustion took over and pulled me into a dreamless sleep.